


Shadow of Death

by XaviaAndromedovna



Series: Daily Fic Drabbles Table A [2]
Category: Anastasia (1997)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, The Romanov Curse, maybe hurt/comfort?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-15 00:17:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/843117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XaviaAndromedovna/pseuds/XaviaAndromedovna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Maybe Anya IS royalty,' Comrade Phlegmenkoff wonders.  'She’s certainly not a good communist.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadow of Death

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Valley

Comrade Phlegmenkoff is a good communist.  She does her duty and takes care of the children in the People’s Orphanage.  She raises the children equally and doesn’t indulge little Anya’s sense of entitlement to anything better than where she’s found herself.  And above all, she knows that religion and superstition are the enemies of the People.

When Anya has been there 4 years, she gets sick.  Comrade Phlegmenkoff calls the doctor, because she needs Anya to help out with the younger orphans.  The doctor finds nothing wrong with her, says she's faking it.  When the doctor leaves, Anya’s symptoms return with a vengeance.  She’s coughing everywhere, she’s feverish, and seems to be hallucinating.  She complains of glowing green lights that fly around the room in which she’s been quarantined.  Comrade Phlegmenkoff breaks her own rule and makes sure Anya gets a larger portion of soup every day to fight the fever.

One night Comrade Phlegmenkoff wakes to screaming.  She goes to Anya’s room and sees a glimmer of green disappear under the bed.  Anya is shouting incoherently before she shoots up in bed and whispers in fear.

“What is it?”

“Rasputin!  The curse!”

“What curse?”

“I…I don’t remember.”  Anya just looks _lost_ , and for a brief second Comrade Phlegmenkoff feels bad for the amnesiac.

“Go back to sleep, child.”  She shuts the door and leans against the frame outside Anya’s room, listening to the girl sniffle.  A thousand thoughts compete for attention.  Why is she dreaming of Rasputin?  Could Anya be royalty?  The talk of St. Petersburg is that Anastasia is alive; could she— and what about the green lights?  That wasn’t a hallucination.

Comrade Phlegmenkoff returns to her room and takes out her bottle of vodka.  She’s thinking too much, and that’s dangerous for a communist.  What she needs is to forget.  It’s better for everyone to forget.

As she falls asleep, she hears Anya through the wall saying a forbidden prayer.

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

Maybe Anya _is_ royalty.  She’s certainly not a good communist.

**Author's Note:**

> Anastasia is not mine.


End file.
